nature

When I was little I thought that smokestacks were cloud machines. I was positive that the pollution pouring out of the top was the new clouds being released into the sky and that was how the weather man decided if it would be cloudy or sunny.

When I was about 4 or 5.. I thought that the tree in my front yard could talk.. and I would go out there every morning (mostly) and talk to it, and it would respond back. But it was actually the neighbor in the kitchen window talking as the tree. This went on for quite a while, just "Hey, Mr. Tree, how was your sleep?" and it would respond in a deep heavy voice "Oh I had a wonderful sleep" and we would just have a conversation until I had to go.

When I was a child I believed that the wind was caused by the world moving really fast through space. The more windy it was, the faster the world must have been spinning.

I used to believe that if there was an earthquake, a hole would open right under my feet, and I would fall to the center of the earth, and the hole would then close, thus, trapping me inside the earth forever. ( Cuz' it's happened in movies!) I soon realized that this is VERY unlikely.

This is my co-worker's sister-in-law and niece. He said that for the longest time, and sadly well into their adulthoods, they believed that the sun and the moon were actually the same object, but that it was just darker at night.

There was a concrete factory we would drive by on our way to the grocery store. Until I was 9 I thought that it and all other factories in the world's only purpose was to make clouds.

When i was was a kid i used to think that clouds were actually space ships fighting over earth and that rain happened when ever one got destroyed.

We lived near a lake when I was a boy. My older brothers, who all swam well, told my younger brother and me that there was a sandbar in the middle of the lake, and that it was where all the snapping turtles lived. They said if I ever tried to swim across the lake and tried to stand up on the sandbar, or even let my kicking feet get near the bottom, the snapping turtles would bite onto me, would never let go, and I would drown.

A few years later, when I finally figured I was strong enough to swim across the lake, I nearly panicked when I got tired near the middle. I'm so glad I learned the elementary backstroke in the Scouts! I wouldn't let myself stop, made it all the way across, and all the way back.

To this day, I still have a irrational fear (though one I can get past) of being bitten by a snapping turtle when I'm wading or swimming in lakes and rivers (and I'm 39)!

When i was about 5 or 6 i thought that all the atmosphere was held down by the ozone layer. i always worried about spaceships popping it or the shock wave from an atomic bomb letting air out.

I used to believe that lighting and thunder in the sky meant God was angry. I thought the rain falling was God crying. I also believed that the moon was God's eye watching us and the stars were all the people in heaven and a shooting star was someone going to heaven. My mom always told me that when it thundered, the angels were moving furniture around and that's why it is so loud.

I believed that if I would blow in a certain direction, a strong wind would circle the entire earth and come from behind me in a few days.

My brother told me that the bush in my neighbors yard had an indian living in it that would jump out and attack you when you walked by. I sprinted past that thing for 5 years until they finally cut it down.

I didn't know that there was only one type of dandelion flower until about a year ago (I just turned 30). I always thought that there were yellow ones, and then there were those white, fluffy, puff-ball ones. I was in complete disbelief when my husband told me they were the same flower just different stages of growth. I still have a hard time believing this. I mean, I've never seen a half-yellow/half-fluffy one....

When I was under 10 I used to believe that I could control rain. I called myself the queen of rain. I thought it rained if I wished so. I even had a red umbrella and I enjoyed walking in the rain and I always felt fine if it was raining. I could also stop raining ;)))
(I still love rainy weather.)

Up until the other day my friend thought that SPF 30+ sunscreen meant that the temperature had to be above 30 degrees for you wear it. I was the one to inform her that this was not the case.

When i was little, my mom told me that when it thundered and lightened that Mother Nature and God were bowling and whenever lightening stuck, somebody knocked down all the pins and when it thundered really loud that Mother Nature was losing and she was getting mad.